On the 8th of December, 2014, the Good Shepherd Sisters of “Good Shepherd Center†community organized a significant social activity in Macau. Called “Walk for Women,†the social activity was sponsored by “JML Properties International Ladies’ Club of Macauâ€. The people taking part in the event gathered together at the Park called “Garden of Vasco Da Gama,†which is near “Royal Hotel†and not far from our Priory of St. Dominic. The walk began at 2:30 in the afternoon and ended half an hour later at about four in “Sintra Square.â€
The theme of this social activity was “to raise the voice or conscience of society to respect the dignity of women, to ask for equal rights for women in society and to stop all types of violence against women.â€
There were around 200 people who participated in this activity. They were women and men belonging to different associations, institutions and religious congregations, including the majority of our Dominican Brothers and Sisters. After the walk, a two-hour program followed at “Sintra Square.†The main speech was pronounced by the Mother Superior of the Good Shepherd Sisters, Sr. Mary Juliana Suzanne Devoy, who runs the Good Shepherd Center for Women. There is a need to raise awareness on the social issue of discrimination against women. As human beings, as Christians, we are all asked to denounce any kind of discrimination and to be on the side of the victims and help them. After the inspiring talk, other numbers of the simple program followed: an interesting skit, some songs, dances and games. The whole program was conducted in Cantonese.
The social activity “Walk for Women†was indeed an important and relevant social activity in Macau. As human beings, as believers in Jesus, we are all social beings and belong to the human and/or Christian family and therefore concerned with the well-being of one another, in particular the needy and marginalized like the victims of discrimination, including women who are the group most discriminated against in our world. Let us close this brief report with the words of Pope Francis on a kind of discrimination against children and women, which is human trafficking: “Human trafficking is a crime against humanity… Our efforts must be accompanied and reinforced by the mercy of the Gospel, by closeness to the men and women who are victims of this crime.â€
Bro. Francis Nge Nge, OP
St. Dominic’s Priory, Macau
PREPARING FOR THE ORDER’S JUBILEE 800
On November 30, 2014, the Jubilee Promoter of the Province
suggests in a letter to the brothers two possible
activities that highligh the continuing
preparation for the Jubilee 800
JUB 800/2
November 30, 2014
Dear Brothers in St. Dominic:
Fraternal greetings to all and happy day of the inauguration of the Year of Consecrated Life! With my second email, I wish to continue our conversation on the Order’s Jubilee 800 and on possible future activities.
Most of our communities started to pray the Jubilee Prayer on the Feast of All the Saints of the Order, November 7, 2014. On this day, the one-year preparation of the eighth centenary of the Order began officially in our Province. As you know, the Jubilee 800 shall start on November 7, 2015. The daily recitation of the Jubilee Prayer is putting us on the “Jubilee Mode,†the mode of personal and communitarian renewal. Hopefully, the common prayer will strengthen our determined resolve to begin earnestly the dynamic process of renewal: the renewal of the Order is aim of the Jubilee. We do not forget that the main protagonist of the renewal is each one of us. Let us pray for one another so that we all may be truly motivated to walk on the path of personal and communitarian renewal.
The Order is asking each Province, Vicariate and community to plan different activities. Our superiors with the help of brothers in charge of study, formation, mission, justice and peace, etc. will guide us to plan together specific activities. Among the activities recommended by the Order’s Jubilee Committee are “Special Liturgical Celebrations.†Our communities may wish to invite to the liturgical celebration other members of the Dominican Family – when possible. The first liturgical celebration recommended to all communities is on December 22, 2014, which commemorates the 798 Anniversary of the first Confirmation of the Order by Pope Honorius III.
Another significant activity that our communities could perhaps plan during Advent 2014: the common reading of Chapters II and III of the Acts of the General Chapter of Trogir (2013) on the Celebration of the Jubilee: II, nos. 40-49; III, nos. 50-62.
Let us recall that the theme of reflection of the Order for the year 2015 is the following: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:31-32); “For freedom Christ set us free” (Gal 5:1) – Dominic: Government, Spirituality and Freedom.
(For resources and more information, kindly see the web page of the Order on the Jubilee 800)
Your brother,
Fray Fausto Gomez, OP
St. Dominic’s Priory, Macau
faustogomezb@yahoo.com
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On November 2, 2014, the new Prior of St. Dominic’s Priory, Macau, started officially his three-year term of office. He was elected, approved and confirmed a few days earlier, on October 28.
Fr. José Luis de Miguel Fernández, OP, made the required Profession of Faith as the new Prior within the Mass of November 2, All Sous Day, which was presided by Fr. Javier González, OP, Prior Provincial, and concelebrated by the eight Dominican priests of St. Dominic’s. The Eucharistic celebration was animated by the songs of the twenty student-brothers and the faithful participating in the Eucharistic celebration.
After the reading of the official letter of the Prior Provincial approving and confirming the election of the new Prior, Fr. José Luis spoke of his gratitude and his hopes. He underlined the Dominican call to fraternity, freedom, solidarity, service and cooperation. Before the end of the Mass, Fr. Javier expressed the deep gratitude of the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary to the new Prior for accepting the office, and to the previous Prior, Fr. Alejandro Salcedo, OP, who ended his second term as St. Dominic’s Prior on October 19, 2014.
Born in Renedo de Valdetuéjar (Leon), Fr. José Luis was ordained a priest in Valladolid on June 30, 1963. He crowned his ecclesiastical studies with a Licentiate and a Doctorate in Oriental Ecclesiastical Sciences at the Oriental Institute in Rome in 1968. Thereafter, he was a professor of theological subjects in the Philippines, Chile and Spain. The new Prior was earlier Prior In San Juan, Metro Manila, and in Santiago de Chile. He has been widely  involved in formation and publications, particularly in the Philippines and in Chile, where he ministered for  25 years. At present he is a member of the Council of the Dominican Province, Assistant Master of Students at St. Dominic’s and visiting professor at St. Joseph University, Macau.
After the November 2 Sunday Eucharist, the concelebrants, the student-brothers and the faithful attending the Mass of All Souls Day shared together a simple meal offered by the Dominican community.
Fr. José Luis, fraternal congratulations!Â
Fr. Alex, many, many thanks!
We praise the Lord!
May the Holy Spirit accompany us all
to walk by the path of Dominic, our dear Father!
On September 14, 2014, XXIV Sunday of the Year and the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross, three of our student brothers made their Solemn Profession at the Chapel of St. Dominic’s Priory in Macau.
Our Dominican brothers Mario Oo Shwe, Alphonso Bo and Matthew Shing Mang Tun made their promise to God to be obedient until death before Fr. Javier González, OP, Prior Provincial of Our lady of the Rosary Province. The sober and moving ceremony was part of the Holy Eucharist which was presided by Fr. Javier and concelebrated by brother Dominicans from the communities of Macau, Hong Kong and China. Fr. Franz Gassner, SVD, graciously participated  in the Mass. Fr. Provincial in his homily spoke of the significance of the Cross in our lives; of the cross as the icon of unconditional obedience of Jesus to the Father, of doing always God’s will. Indeed, doing the will of God by the way of Jesus unveils the deep meaning of the Solemn Profession: to do God’s will, “nothing more, nothing less, nothing else! The choir sung: “Set apart for You, Lord / I choose to be holy / Set apart for you, my Master / Ready to do Your will.â€
The chapel was filled up – many were standing – with the faithful who regularly attend our Sunday Mass, friends of the professing brothers, and the Dominican brothers and sisters in Macau. Our Dominican student brothers and the postulants of the Dominican Missionaries of the Rosary animated wonderfully the whole liturgy. The singing of the awesome Latin hymn to the Holy Spirit while our three brothers prostrated on the ground contributed to the contemplative mood of the celebration: Veni Crteator Spiritus, / mentes tuorum visita,/ Imple superna gratia / Quae tu creasti pectora.
Dear Brothers Mario, Matthew and Alphonso,
our fraternal and warm congratulations. You are most welcome particularly
by all the members of the Dominican Province of Our Lady of the Rosary.
We hope and pray to journey together by the path of Dominic our Father and Founder.
After the liturgical celebration, a fraternal agape, to which all those attending the Mass were gladly invited, followed at the Hall of the convent
As we finish this brief report, lyrics of one of the lovely songs which enlightened the prayerful and joyful Eucharistic celebration keep coming back:
Here I am
And I long to do your will,
Here I am
I follow Your commands,
Here I am
Until my calling is fulfilled,
Here I am, here I am!
On the Feast of Saints Peter & Paul, Sunday June 29, 2014, a young girl from Macao was baptized and confirmed at the Priory’s Chapel during the Eucharistic Celebration. She also received Holy Communion for the first time.
Miss Petra Leung, after having been properly prepared by Dominican Sister Camino of St. Paul School, received the three Sacraments of Initiation from Fr. Alejandro Salcedo, OP, Prior of St. Dominic Priory.
Certainly, the Baptism of Petra is a historical event: the first celebration of the three Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist at the Chapel of the Dominican Priory in Macau.
Being a Sunday, the Chapel was packed with the family of Petra, our Sunday Mass faithful and the whole Dominican community. Â The Mass was concelebrated by the other Dominican priests of the community and animated by beautiful and meaningful liturgical songs led by our student brothers.
After the Mass, all the members of the Priory were invited by the family of Petra to share lunch in a Chinese Restaurant located in the popular and elegant tourist spot, the slim Macau Tower.
Fittingly the eve of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, June 28, is a most appropriate moment to once again renew the religious vows, the three evangelical counsels: obedience, chastity, and poverty. In the Office Readings for the Feast of the two apostles, St Augustine says that the sound of these two great apostles has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. Reflecting on how these two greatest apostles gave witness to the Good News throughout the world and how they defended their faith in Christ inspired and moved the brothers who publicly and joyfully professed their vows during the evening prayer in honor of Sts. Peter and Paul.
St. Augustine again says that these two martyrs had seen what they proclaimed: they pursued justice by confessing the truth, by dying for the truth. These thoughts remind us of the confession we made in our first religious profession, when we placed our entire life in God’s hands. This remembrance of our first profession as Dominican brothers helps the eight of us to renew our religious profession in the Province of Our Lady of the Rosary. As we renew our profession, we also commit ourselves to confess and proclaim the truth of faith and love. It is for the truth (veritas), one of our Dominican mottos, that these brothers have decided to continue their life as Dominicans promising obedience to God, to Our Lady, to St. Dominic, our Founder and Father and to his successors.
Indeed, these eight brothers expressed their joy and happiness after the ceremony of their renewal. Bro. Joseph joyfully said: “I was really happy to renew my profession again as I love to continue the journey of a Dominican brother. I am very thankful to God for this vocation and to the Dominican Fathers (priests) for accepting me as one of their brothers.â€
Bro. Lawrence for his part said: “I am very happy to get such a chance to continue in this life (Dominican life). I believe that it is the grace and the will of God, and I still firmly hope that God will continue granting His blessing to me, because I cannot go on without God.â€
Another brother added: “I did feel blest and was indeed joyful when I renewed my religious vow.â€
In fact, their joy does not come out of their emotion, but out of their motivation. As we all have our various motivation for something, while seeking God and His mercy in this life, our eight brothers also have their motivation to renew their religious profession, or, so to speak, to continue their search for God and His mercy as Dominicans. One brother expressed his motivation thus: “My motivation is to help the people of God, especially the needy ones and the least ones.†Another brother confessed that “The motivation behind my renewal is to follow Christ in the special manner that St. Dominic has shown us: to be a witness of the words of God and to be part of the building of the Dominican Order in Myanmar as well.â€
Hearing their voice, I could not keep silent myself, since I am also one of the brothers renewing the religious vows together with them. It is by the grace of the Holy Spirit that we joyfully renew our religious profession; and it is the thousands of people who are starving for the Word of God that motivate us to carry on our witnessing for the Word of God as Dominicans in the Church.
Let us add that on the same day, in the morning of June 28 six novices made their first religious profession at St. Albert the Great Priory in Rosaryhill, Hong Kong. So from now on, the eve of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul will be really an unforgettable and blessed day for the Dominican Province. By their religious profession in the Order of Preachers, the brothers become Dominicans “fully committed to preaching the Word of God in its totality†so that they live “an apostolic life in the full sense of the word, from which preaching and teaching ought to issue from an abundance of contemplation.â€
By the way, another brother from our Priory of St. Dominic, Macau, who had to advance the renewal of his simple profession, made his profession the day before: on June 27, during the evening prayer and after the singing of the Te Deum. He is our Brother Pio Yu You Sin, OP, from Korea.
Bro. Paul Aung Myint Win OP
